After coming back from the Christmas weekend, I thought our desire was better. I thought we had a better feel for the game and we were able to use our deep bench.

It's a big weekend, a very competitive weekend. After a little disappointment down in L.A. (against UCLA and USC), we look at this as an opportunity. And now we are ready to compete and defend Mac Court.

I really missed him. Last weekend I got him some presents because he didn't have Christmas. We are going to go out and spend some time together.

Our desire for this weekend is to rattle the parks department's cage and make them aware there are not just six people in each neighborhood who are unhappy, but there are thousands of Seattle residents who feel trounced upon and abused. Maybe this will force the parks department to be more responsive to its citizens.

We were taken by complete surprise by their remarks last weekend. We felt like we wanted to make it an intellectual issue if we were allowed to.

Dates of the big July weekend are printed on the back; however, that doesn't mean they need to come down after that weekend. We encourage businesses to display them until the celebration officially ends with the re-sealing of the time capsule.